Carl’s Rock Songbook #45: The Beach Boys, “Do You Like Worms?”

Do you like “Do You Like Worms?” ?

Let’s try an experiment: I’d like readers who have not really heard the Beach Boys’ SMiLE , their ambitious 60s album only recently “released” in a Brian Wilson-approved form, to listen to two of the most popular songs from it, and then let us know what they think in the comments section.

So, listen to “Worms,” and then to “Heroes and Villains.”

Someone, I’m guessing Capitol Records, commissioned a You Tube “video-contest” for the latter song, and so if you want, you can also listen it to accompanied by a Peter Max-like cartoon . (Of course, my general advice with exploring music on You Tube is to set aside the video and just concentrate on the song itself for the first couple listens.)

I’ll chime in once I get your reactions. My purpose in having us consider these songs is to be able to better judge the larger phenomenon of the mid-60s “Pop Art” style, explored at length in the last Songbook post . I’m not showing my own hand much nor stating a controversial opinion by sharing in advance that I regard SMiLE as a lesser achievement than Pet Sounds . For more info on the 2011 SMiLE release and to see Brian Wilson in one of his few meet-ups with his most dedicated (and often musically intimidating!) fans, go here .